Epress.am News from Armenia
The Armenian team is preparing for its match with Azerbaijan’s team in the penultimate round of the World Chess Team Championship in the Chinese city of Ningbo the same way it prepares for the rest of its matches, said Armenian team chess player Levon Aronian (pictured) in an interview with Azerisport.
“The match with Azerbaijan’s team for us is a regular game. I know they defeated the Russian team. As a competitor, I won’t deny that I was following your GMs’ games. But for us, I have to say again, this is a regular game that is no different from matches played earlier in this tournament,” said the Armenian GM.
Commenting on the shift from Azerbaijani GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov to Azerbaijani GM Teimur Radjabov on the first board, Aronian said it doesn’t matter who he will play against. “Both are very experienced chess players. In general, your team has highly trained chess players. I want to particularly note the top three with ratings above 2,700.”
Aronian also noted that any team could be an obstacle in the way for Armenia’s path to victory in the championship. “Very strong teams have come to Ningbo. We need to realistically assess each contender. Perhaps only Egypt can be called an outsider — all the other teams can create problems. The remaining three rounds [Note: at the time of publication, there were two rounds left] are important to us. We need to win all upcoming matches in order to become the champion. Because of this, the significance of the upcoming match with Azerbaijan increases.”
On Jul. 25, the Armenian team, which is leading the standings, will play against the team from Azerbaijan, which is 7th place. Victory in this match will allow Armenia to celebrate its victory one round before the end of the championship.
Note, the Yinzhou Cup 2011 World Chess Team Championship, taking place in Ningbo, China, runs Jul. 15 to 27.